Paul Tillich is generally considered one of the century's outstanding
and influential thinkers. After teaching theology and philosophy at various
German universities, he came to the United States in 1933. For many years he
was Professor of Philosophical Theology at Union Theological Seminary in New
York City, then University Professor at Harvard University. His books include
Systematic Theology; The Courage to Be; Dynamics of Faith; Love, Power and Justice;
Morality and Beyond; and Theology of Culture. This book was published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, in 1955 and is out of print. This material was prepared for Religion Online by John Bushell.

Chapter 12: The Meaning of Providence

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ROMANS
8:38-89.

These well known words of Paul express the Christian faith in divine
Providence. They are the first and fundamental interpretation of the disturbing
words in the gospel of Matthew, where Jesus commands us not to take any
thought about our life and food and clothing, and to seek first the Kingdom
of God, all of our daily life and needs are already known by God. We need
such an interpretation. For there are few articles of the Christian faith
which are more important for the daily life of every man and woman, and
there are few more open to misunderstanding and distortion. And such misunderstanding
necessarily leads to a disillusionment which not only turns the hearts
of men away from God, but also creates a revolt against Him, against Christianity,
and against religion. When I spoke to the soldiers between the battles
of the last war, they expressed their denial of the Christian message in
terms of an attack upon the belief in Providence. An attack which obviously
drew its bitterness from fundamental disappointments. After reading a paper
written by the great Einstein, in which he challenges the faith in a personal
God, I concluded that there was no difference between his feeling and that
of the unsophisticated soldiers. The idea of God seemed to be impossible,
because the reality of our world seems to be in opposition to the all-mighty
power of a wise and righteous God. Once, when I tried to interpret to a
group of Christian and Jewish refugees the paradoxical character of the
divine world-government in terms of Second Isaiah, a formerly eminent Jew
from Western Germany told me that he had received many cablegrams from
Southern France informing him of the horrible story of the sudden evacuation,
from Germany, of nearly ten thousand Jews, of the age of ninety or more,
and of their transportation to the concentration camps. He said that the
thought of this unimaginable misery prevented him from being able to find
meaning in even the most powerful message concerning the divine Providence.

What answer shall we give, what answer can we give to such a
crucial problem, a problem in which Christianity as a whole is at stake,
a problem which has nothing to do with a theoretical criticism of the idea
of God, but rather which represents the anguish of the human heart which
can no longer stand the power borne by the daemonic forces on earth?

Paul speaks of these forces. He knows them all: the
horror of death and the anxiety of life; the irresistible strength of natural
and historic powers; the ambiguity of the present and the inscrutable darkness
of the future; the incalculable turns of fate from height to depth, and
from depth to height; and the natural destruction of creature by creature.
He knows them all as well as we do, who have, in our period, rediscovered
them, after a short time in which Providence and reality seemed to be a
matter of fact. But it never was, and never will be, a matter of fact.
It is rather a matter of the most powerful, the most paradoxical, and the
most venturing faith. Only as such has it meaning and truth.

What is its content? It is certainly not a vague promise that, with
the help of God, everything will come to a good end; there are many things
that come to a bad end. And it is not the maintenance
of hope in every situation; there are situations in which there can be
no hope. Nor is it the anticipation of a period of history, in which divine
Providence will be proved by human happiness and goodness; there is no
generation in which divine Providence will be less paradoxical than it
is in ours. But the content of the faith in Providence is this: when death
rains from heaven as it does now, when cruelty wields power over nations
and individuals as it does now, when hunger and persecution drive millions
from place to place as they do now, and when prisons and slums all over
the world distort the humanity of the bodies and souls of men as they do
now, we can boast in that time, and just
in that time, that even all of this cannot separate us from the love of
God. In this sense, and in this sense alone, all things work together for
good, for the ultimate good, the eternal love, and the Kingdom of
God. Faith in divine Providence is the faith that nothing can prevent us
from fulfilling the ultimate meaning of our existence. Providence does
not mean a divine planning by which everything is predetermined, as is
an efficient machine. Rather, Providence means that there is a creative
and saving possibility implied in every situation, which cannot be destroyed
by any event. Providence means that the daemonic and destructive forces
within ourselves and our world can never have an unbreakable grasp upon
us, and that the bond which connects us with the fulfilling love can never
be disrupted.

This love appears to us and is embodied inChrist Jesus our Lord.." By adding this, Paul does not use a merely
solemn phrase, as we often do when we use the words. He uses them, rather,
after he has pointed to the only thing that can destroy our faith in Providence,
which is our disbelief in the love of God, our distrust of God, our fear
of His wrath, our hatred of his Presence, our conception of Him as a tyrant
who condemns us, and our feeling of sin and guilt. It is not the depth
of our suffering, but the depth of our separation from God, which destroys
our faith in Providence. Providence and the forgiveness of sins are not
two separate aspects of the Christian faith; they are one and the same
-- the certainty that we can reach eternal life in spite of suffering and
sin. Paul unites both words by saying, "Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus…
. who maketh intercession for us", and therefore, he
continues, "Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."
This is the faith in Providence, and this alone.